Mr. David Gressly
Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen

In response to your statement issued on August 30, 2021, in which you flagged that Starting in Sept 2021, some agencies may revert to reducing critical programs, including in water, health, and other sectors, due to lack of funding.

We urge you to assume your responsibilities towards the millions of Yemenis, who depend on these vital programs and projects as you have other options to fulfill your humanitarian and moral obligations towards these afflicted people, and the country mired in war; the consequences of reducing the United Nations agencies' programs would be catastrophic in terms of interruption of health services, cutting off water supplies, and the possibility of the death of thousands of malnourished and sick children.

Mr. David Gressly,

We would like to draw your attention to the following points:  
   Yemen is now in the seventh year of the start of the War. An entire generation with approximately 6 million new Yemenis was born during the war situation (2015-2021), which indicates increased humanitarian needs.

  Donors’ countries should increase their humanitarian assistance pro-rated to the resilience programming requirements. This is important to alleviate the negative impact of the sudden future decrease in humanitarian funding. Yemeni people hope and request from developed countries to press for peace, as there is no ideal solution to stop the humanitarian suffering in Yemen other than stopping the war.

  Due to the continuous closure of Hodeida port, Taiz Road, Sana’a Marib Road, and Sana’a port, which is nearly serve 60% of the population (20 million Yemenis). The cost of basic life-saving humanitarian needs has increased due to complications made by war parties on imports through ports. Most humanitarian needs such as food, WASH, health commodities are bought by NGOs from the local market with commercial price, which includes the extra costs resulted from double customs, transportation, depreciation of the local currency, and deterioration of roads used to transport those goods.), Many people are dying in silence (the UN has the statistics) as they lost access to health services abroad. Alternative airports are with insecure roads leading to them and increase the cost on most vulnerable accordingly. We ask all parties in Yemen to adopt and ensure safe passage for the humanitarian aid, humanitarian workers, and civilians, mainly in the hot spots areas such as Marib, Taiz, Hajja, and Hodeida. 

    Localization of Humanitarian Action in theory and practice is needed as part of the smart solution for short, medium, and long-term impact. OCHA has shown a determinant to localization where 26% of humanitarian funds are managed by local partners. However, the need to develop smarter approaches to localization requires additional funding. Local  NGOs staff who gained experience in professional management (gained from their counterparts in international and UN agencies) will be part of leaders for these countries in near future. They live continuously, since the start of the conflict, among the most vulnerable, to address their needs with efficient cost management, devoting their time and exposing their lives to risks. Hence, protection and support for those heroes is a wise decision that we must work to learn from and improve accordingly. Yemen's OCHA portfolio remains one of the best managed across the world. Accordingly, there should be continued support from donor communities. While in 2015 we were looking for local partners (metaphorically) by torch, today it has become more competitive due to the efforts of OCHA to build local capacities to high-performance standards. Stopping or decreasing fund at the middle of the road negatively impact the humanitarian actors' efforts.

    The international community should press all parties mainly   (Sana'a   government and Aden  government ) to pay salaries to public servants based on the records of 2014 and pay them directly under the supervision of the UN. They can use the revenue from oil, gas, taxes, and other sources of income.

Mr. David Gressly,

Considering that 22.2 million Yemenis need a type of humanitarian assistant in 2021, and humanitarian needs only obtained 40% of needed funding.  About 11.1 million remain unreached. The entire population in need of a type of humanitarian assistant is about five times the size of the Paris population. Unreached most vulnerable due to lack of funding which amounts to 10.3 million beneficiaries equals 122% to New York population and 119% to Switzerland. Imagine that Switzerland or New Yorkers lacking access to basic sufficient food, water, health, and protection. What would you do? We are all guests on this plant!? The humanitarian situation needs real economic and diplomatic commitment to alleviate a human-made disaster in Yemen.  

Regarding what was stated in your statement that "The funding allocated to national NGOs will amount to 26 percent of the allocation, exceeding the Grand Bargain commitment on localization of aid",  as members of "Localization of Humanitarian Action in Yemen" initiative, we can emphasize that this is not sufficient, as local organizations do not receive direct funds to implement their humanitarian and development interventions in Yemen, and their role is still limited to as a "service provider" or an "implementing partner".

Accordingly, we rejuvenate our commitment to what was stated in the statement issued by civil society organizations in Yemen on August 21, 2021, regarding the Localization of Humanitarian Action in Yemen. We demand to sit with you and the other concerned parties to seriously discuss and constructively activate the international conventions and charters relating to the Localization of humanitarian action stipulated in the "Grand Bargain", "the Charter for Change", "plan of action for humanity", and the "new way of working".

Also, we stress building strategic partnerships between local, international organizations, and UN agencies through long-term projects and increasing the number of representatives for the country team from 3 to 5 members, in addition to increasing the number of the humanitarian advisory team from 2 to 5 representatives, so that they are chosen democratically and transparently by civil society organizations.

In conclusion, we confidently hope that you will put these demands into consideration and you are genuinely interested in implementing the commitments of the Grand Bargain to reach a comprehensive, fair, and respectful future roadmap for local authorities.
 
Civil Society Organizations
Localization of Humanitarian Action in Yemen Initiative's Members